Third SWA High Level Meeting PHOTO SUMMARY

Transcription

1 Third SWA High Level Meeting PHOTO SUMMARY The 3rd Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) High Level Meeting (HLM) was held on 11 April Convened by UNICEF on behalf of the SWA Partnership and hosted by the World Bank in Washington DC, the meeting was attended by 20 finance ministers and 35 ministers responsible for water and sanitation, who along with major donors, tabled new commitments towards achieving universal access to sanitation and water. The HLM was opened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and SWA Chair and former President of Ghana John A. Kufuor. SWA Chair H.E. John A. Kufuor opened the meeting noting the progress towards achieving the commitments made at the last High Level Meeting in 2012, Together we are delivering results that will transform the lives of millions, even billions, of people around the world. This is imperative. In his opening remarks, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called SWA an extraordinary alliance and noted that This meeting can generate the push we need for a major advance on sustainable development. He outlined three components needed for success First, smart investment. We agree that spending on sanitation and water for all is wise. Our challenge is to do this the way that is smart. Resources are scarce. With the right allocations, we can optimize the funds and reach all people in the world. Second: firm commitment. We need strong institutions to reach people living in slums and remote areas and to make sure that services last Third, staunch advocacy It s not always comfortable to talk about sensitive hygiene matters. Open defecation used to be a taboo topic, but we are speaking up to save lives. World Bank President Dr. Jim Yong Kim emphasized that Finance ministers have been absent from this conversation for too long. We want to ensure that you have the resources to prioritize sanitation in your country and that other ministries have the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. But today we need ministries of finance to lead on sanitation. Our country directors are waiting to hear from you and look forward to helping you make access to sanitation services a priority. 1

2 Mr. Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF, welcomed participants, outlined the linkages with nutrition and other sectors and concluded his remarks by saying The message is clear. We must continue to push for universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene for all children, no matter where they live, and no matter what barriers stand in the way. Because when WASH improves for every person, lives are saved, nations become healthier and economies grow stronger. Dr. Shanta Devarajan, Chief Economist at the World Bank, noted in his keynote address, that there are pressures on finance ministers to spend on many competing priorities and advised that they should spend scarce resources on things that the private sector would not spend on. Because that s the only way you can actually make a sensible choice among the different competing ends.when you openly defecate, you are actually imposing a cost on the rest of the community. Not just to yourself, not even just to your children. But other people.this is the strongest case for public spending on sanitation. It s not those high rates of return. It s the externality. And this is what governments should be focusing on. we have to use the externality argument to buttress the political pressure to continue to spend on private goods and be able to make the case for sanitation on sound economic principles. Ambitious goals; clear institutional and policy framework; allocation of significant resources; investment in capacity and supply chain; and harmonization of efforts have underpinned Ethiopia s impressive success. Addressing inequalities is a vital area where we should be critically mindful. If a country is going to achieve universal access, the disparities that may exist in various parts of the country needs to be addressed. Cognizant of this fact, the government of Ethiopia has given more emphasis on developing regional states with packages specific and compatible to the situation of the regions. Ethiopia s Minister of Finance Hon. Sufian Ahmed Following the key-note speeches, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson moderated a session during which ministers of finance shared their experiences around past commitments made at the 2012 HLM and the new commitments being tabled at this meeting. He opened the session remembering the 2012 SWA High Level Meeting, recalling it as the best meeting I have ever attended on the water and sanitation issue Probably because we were such a diverse group and particularly you were there in the room we had all the actors there who could gather around the problem. We should try to start to think and work horizontally and not vertically. We live far too much in silos. We have to go across the borders, put the problem in the centre and then ask who can do something about it. 2

3 Hon. Mrs. Sarah Reng Ochekpe, President of the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) and Nigeria s Minister of Water Resources gave attendees an overview of the results of the previous day s Sector Ministers Meeting, underlining the strong commitments made, and making an appeal to finance ministers to recognize the value of investing in WASH and to donors to strive towards a much closer alignment to developing countries national plans. Hon. Mr. Amara Konneh, Liberia s Minister of Finance, announced the establishment of the National Water and Sanitation Board, chaired by the President of Liberia. He said the Board, as well as water and sanitation issues in general, will be prioritized in the national budget for the next fiscal year and asked for international support for these activities. Rt. Hon. Justine Greening MP, the UK s Secretary of State for International Development, reiterated her country s support of WASH-related programs and DFID s focus on three keyissues: reaching women and girls, ensuring sustainable investment and improving aid effectiveness. Finland s Minister for International Development, Hon. Mr. Pekka Haavisto, started his statement by saying that reaching the drinking water MDG was a success story that we must guarantee continues. Building on his country s positive experience in working with countries such as Nepal and Ethiopia to accelerate progress towards universal access; he stated that Finland commits to help an additional one million people to have universal access to WASH by 2016 The DSG then called on Mrs. Lajana Manandhar of the Freshwater Action Network South Asia (FANSA) and Executive Director, Lumanti Support Group for Shelter in Nepal, to speak on behalf of civil society organisations. She noted that the partnership is making a demand. And that demand is creating a pressure on all of us to act together. And not only to act together, but to act fast, very fast, to achieve this dream. She highlighted the importance of civil society s involvement in the SWA partnership at the grassroots, national and international level. 3

4 Nepal s Minister of Finance, Hon. Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat, stated Nepal s substantial progress in meeting its WASH-related MDGs and the country s success in surpassing the MDG target for access to water supply. Mr. Mahat stressed that there are still challenges and urged the international community to close the financial gap between what the government is committing to and what is needed. Madagascar was represented at the HLM by Hon. Mr. Lantoniaina Rasoloelison, Minister of Finance and Budget, who stated that the government of Madagascar is aware of the great economic impact caused by the lack of universal access to sanitation and water and is committed to improve the situation. He is committed to placing WASH as a priority in the country s development strategy and decentralizing the island s water services to better reach the population. Tanzania s Minister of Finance Hon. Mrs. Saada Mkuya Salum spoke next, explaining how her country has separated the service delivery of WASH from regulatory function to ensure that water-user groups and the private sector service providers operate with the level of autonomy required. Additionally, Tanzania is developing standard contracts and rural water supply models to ensure that water is really accessible and maintained at a (very) local level. Dr. Rajiv Shah, Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) explained how his government reallocated aid to WASH to maximize its impact on health, nutrition and education. He also highlighted the US commitment to reach six million people by 2018 with WASH activities and to ramp up sanitation programs in 12 countries. Dr. Shah also announced the launch of a knowledge-platform around sustained water and sanitation services. Dr. Chris Elias, President of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation s Global Development Program spoke next. We re making significant investments to develop new tools for containing and treating human waste non-sewered sanitation systems present viable business opportunities for entrepreneurs we re going to need innovations, as many have talked about, in business models and public/private partnerships to ultimately bring sanitation to everyone and to make it no longer the lagging MDG indicator. 4

5 Representing Sierra Leone, Hon. Mr. Kaifala Marrah, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, addressed the HLM participants with feedback on the high priority placed on WASH in the country s Agenda for Prosperity. One key activity of the Agenda is a capacity building program that has trained over 200 people to work at community-level. Hon. Dr. Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, Minister of Finance of Afghanistan, opened his remarks by stating that water and sanitation continues to be a priority of the Afghani government and of its people. It comes up not only in its own context but also when discussing health priorities and rural development. Japan, one of the biggest donors to the WASH sector, was represented by Mr. Takeshi Osuga, Deputy Director General of the International Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Osuga stated that Japan s ODA on water and sanitation in 2013 is estimated to be at least 2.3 billion U.S. dollars, including 490 million U.S. dollars for African countries. Japan will continue its cooperation in this sector to fulfil the needs of people in developing countries by making the best use of Japan s experience, expertise and technology Japan s ODA on water and sanitation will be delivered in such a way that it will facilitate and promote women s active role and participation in society. The final speaker of the moderated discussion was Ms. Maria Ottosson, Deputy Director General of the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). She described the country s broad and horizontal efforts towards universal access to sanitation and water. Sweden investments will be made at the global, regional, bi-lateral and local level. Ms. Ottosson explained, We do this to promote an efficient, sustainable and equitable use of water resources as well as affordable technology options and innovation. The DSG summarized the discussion by saying We are committed to reducing inequalities. We have spoken very concretely about sanitation for all and eliminating open defecation. And we have made commitments to spend more money and also to spend the money we have more wisely. And I would stress very much to build institutions. He further appealed to the participants to bring the focus on water and sanitation into the deliberations on the post-2015 agenda. Without the support of you, Finance Ministers, Ministers of Sanitation, Ministers of Economic Planning, these goals will not be as substantive and be translated to the national and local scene. So I really hope that you will follow the continued negotiations (on the post-2015 agenda) and bring in your views. 5

6 The HLM concluded with a short panel discussion, moderated by Andrea Koppel. Each of the three panellists made key points on Reaching everyone and making services last: Eliminating inequalities and achieving institutional and technical sustainability. We have learned lessons, sometimes the hard way, that I wanted to share with you: first, it s key to place sustainability and the involvement of local government at the core of our joint efforts. Second, if you don t put sustainability at the heart of the development agreement with the different partners in WASH, it will be lost somewhere. Thirdly: include the private sector because they have a lot of experience to share. Ms. Lilianne Ploumen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, The Netherlands Four measures towards eliminating inequalities: first, have a legislative framework that protects the human right to water and sanitation to ensure accountability... (second) Have the data. Identify who has been left behind Thirdly, act upon the data, prioritize the most marginalized and finally, donors should make funding according to human rights criteria. Ms. Catarina de Albuquerque, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation On top of looking at the environmental and social sustainability, how do you get the economic sustainability? And that s a huge, big challenge. To get really ongoing business models, to have a business case from the private sector and not sort of charity or donation approach. Mr. Keith Weed, Chief Marketing and Communication Officer at Unilever. President Kufuor closed the 3 rd SWA High Level Meeting by saying, I m happy to see that so many commitments focused on building capacity in-country. I m happy that many of you focused on the need to establish and build the institutions necessary to reach everyone with water, sanitation and hygiene.i look forward to our next gathering and in the meantime, we will continue to track progress against the commitments made today and to hold each other accountable within the growing Partnership. President Kufuor ended by saying I m now convinced that our name Sanitation and Water for All will become our achievement. For more information on the 2014 SWA HLM, including more photos, please visit 6